Author's Note
My life's been heck lately, so I needed some catharsis.
Edit: Okay, I took care of the problem.
Holiday Outrage
Holiday Outrage
“Thank you for helping out with sorting these files out, Twilight,” Vice Principal Luna said as she walked out of the room.
“No problem, happy to do it!" Twilight responded cheerfully. She couldn't believe how lucky she was to have two free hours at the end of the day. Usually, she went home on these days, especially since it was Friday. However, she was joining her friends for a sleepover after school, and they were all meeting up for band practice during sixth hour. In the meantime, she offered to help sort out some files for Luna.
While she was left alone, Twilight didn't mind it as much as she used to. Now that she had friends and a school that actually cared about her, she was happier than she had ever been. The holidays were around the corner, her brother and sister-in-law going to make cookies tomorrow, and she honestly didn't know how things could get any better.
Then they got ten times worse.
She became across one incident file labeled Anon-a-Miss. She wouldn't have peeked inside the file if half the contents didn't spill out. Then she spotted the summery, and her curiosity won out.
By the time she finished reading the case, she was in tears. Did this really happen? She thought.
There was only one person who could confirm the story.
Twilight listened to Principal Celestia as she confirmed the story about what happened last year. "This really happened? A bunch of jerks framed Sunset for cyber bullying, and turned the entire school against her? Even her own friends?!"
"I'm sorry to say it, Twilight, but this really did happen." Celestia held up the tissue box for Twilight.
"H-how-- who did it?! The summary blocked out who was really behind Anon-a-Miss!"
"You didn't read the rest of the file?"
"I couldn't bring myself to! It was bad enough reading the incident summary without crying!"
Celestia squeezed Twilight's shoulder. "I think you should talk with your friends about this. As to who the culprits were... Well, your friends should tell you that too."
Twilight wiped her eyes and cleaned her glasses. "Yeah, I'll do that." She got up and began walking out of the office.
"Twilight?"
She turned back to the Principal.
"Please understand that it was all a honest mistake. Sunset Shimmer and her friends have managed to work past it. They share stronger bonds, now more than ever, because they reconciled after the major misunderstanding."
Twilight nodded, then walked back to the file room. She copied the summary and placed the original back in the folder.
So Principal Celestia wants me to talk to my friends about the Anon-a-Miss incident? Twilight thought bitterly. Oh yeah, I'm definitely talking to them.
When Twilight walked into the band room, the first thing she saw was Rarity looking through an outfit rack for the Rainbooms Concerts.
"Oh, Twilight, darling! I'm so glad you're here! Since you're our new singer, I want you to try some--"
That's when it happened. One minute, Rarity was standing up, the next, she was on her back, her nose gushing blood.
"What the heck?!" Rainbow yelled. The other girls just stared in shock.
"Oh, you're really asking me that?" Twilight growled. "What about you guys?!"
Fluttershy was the first to respond, reaching Rarity in record time. "How could you hurt Rarity like this?!" She managed a nasty glare as she helped Rarity sit up.
"Oh, like how you hurt Sunset when you just assumed she was going back to her old ways as 'Anon-a-Miss'?!"
Fluttershy's eyes widened, then welled up with tears. "You found out?"
"Oh yeah, you bet hell I found out!" Twilight pulled the copy of the summary out of her jeans pocket and shoved it into her face. "You didn't bother hearing Sunset's side of the story! Something bad came up, then you decided to abandon her! You're nothing but a bunch of jerks!"
Rainbow was suddenly in Twilight's face. "What, you don't think we feel bad about that?! We felt like crap after we found out who was really responsible!"
"I hope you did!" Twilight was starting to yell. "Celestia wouldn't tell me who was responsible, but I hope you're proud of yourselves, you bastard idiots!"
"Hey, we found out who those secret-stealing meanies were and made up with Sunset!" Pinkie retorted as she hugged Fluttershy with one arm while treating Rarity's bloody nose with the other.
"Well, I hope those heartless boneheaded bimbos ended up in prison for the rest of their pathetic lives!”
Suddenly, Twilight found herself pinned to the wall, with Applejack holding her by the shirt front and with the nastiest look on her face. "Don't even talk about them! You don't even know who they were or why they did it!"
"So you're defending them?! Some friends you are!"
Applejack continued to grip Twilight, but she looked like she was punched in the stomach.
Suddenly, Sunset Shimmer came in with her guitar and was shocked at the scene playing out in front of her. "What the heck is going on here?!"
Twilight took that moment to yank Applejack's hands off her shirt and run out of the band room.
"How could you still love them?!" Twilight yelled at Sunset as she passed her, while throwing the paper at her. The lavender girl took off down the hall. Nobody tried to stop her, as everybody was either helping Rarity with her bloody nose, standing there shell shocked, or crying their eyes out.
Sunset scanned the paper, then turned towards her friends. "She found out, didn't she?"
“You mean about Anon-a-Miss?” Fluttershy whimpered.
Twilight ran up the stairs of the apartment building she lived in and slammed the door. She didn't stop running until she was inside her room.
As soon as she was safely in, Twilight kicked her dresser and laid down in bed. Suddenly, she remembered her fist hitting Rarity's nose, the screaming, and the shock. She burst into tears, over both the fight and the injustice done to Sunset.
"Twilight?" Shining Armor asked, knocking on the door.
"What?!"
"Uh, you okay?"
"Go away!"
Shining opened the door, still dressed in his police uniform. "You want to talk about it?"
Twilight through her pillow at him. He responded by casually catching it and sitting on her bed, Spike soon joining him. "What's going on, Twilight?” The dog asked. “You look like you got into a fight."
At this point, Shining pulled his crying sister into his lap. Spike curled up next to them. "I got you, sis. Just take deep breaths and tell me what happened." Shining Armor whispered.
Twilight was halfway through the story when the doorbell rang. "I got it!" Cadence said down the hall.
Two minutes later, Cadence peeked into the room. "Shining, can you come with me for a second?"
"Can it wait for a second?"
"No, it really can't. I can watch over her if you want."
"Alright.” Shining got up while Cadence took his place. Twilight eagerly accepted the hug her sister-in-law offered.
“So Sunset Shimmer is at the door, and she wants to talk to you.”
“She told you what happened?”
“Yes, Twilight,” Cadence said, her voice becoming stern. “I have to say, you could’ve handled it a whole lot better.”
Twilight began sobbing again. “How-hh-how could they—“
“Twilight, listen to me. It happened before you knew them, and it was just a misunderstanding.”
“A misunderstanding?!” Twilight shouted. “A big fat jerk decided to post embarrassing secrets online, and frame Sunset for it! She made all her friends abandon her without a second thought! There wasn't even that much evidence that it was her! I thought friends were supposed to take care of each other! I mean, I heard that Sunset Shimmer was a bully a couple years ago, but she earned the trust of everyone back! Shouldn’t they—“
“Uh, Twily?” Shining Armor was back inside the doorframe, Sunset there with him. “She want to talk to you, alone.”
“Like, without all of us here?” Spike asked.
Shining gulped. “Yes.” Even though it’s been two months since the Friendship Games, he was still freaked out over Spike’s new talking ability. Both Spike and Cadence left, with Shining making Twilight promise if she needed anything before closing the door.
Sunset pulled the desk chair towards Twilight’s bed and sat down in it. Twilight, meanwhile, sunk down a little. She still remembered how Sunset had yelled at her for the whole carnivorous plant incident at the Relay Race, and she was worried that she would get yelled at again. But Sunset didn't say anything for about three minutes, then sighed.
“So you found out what happened last Christmas?”
“Yes! Sunset, how could they do that?! They blamed you with hardly any evidence!”
“Look, they still feel really ashamed of themselves about what happened! And they took discovering who was really Anon-a-Miss harder than anybody!”
"Why?"
"Because those heartless boneheaded bimbos you mentioned were the Cutie Mark Crusaders!"
Twilight's eyes widened as she gasped. "You mean Applejack, Rainbow, and Rarity's little sisters?"
"Well, Rainbow is actually a Big Sister mentor in one of those programs for only children, but yeah, she's paired up with Scootaloo and they treat each other like they are. Anyway, from me talking to Princess Twilight, I managed to piece it together. Then I got the others to hear me out, but by then, the guilt got to the CMC and they confessed everything."
"But why'd they do it in the first place?!"
"They were jealous of all the time I was spending with their older sisters, so they decided to distance them from me."
Twilight felt herself get even angrier. "That's it? That was the reason they resorted to cyberbullying? That is the lamest and pettiest excuse I have ever heard!"
"Well, they didn't mean to take it as far as they did."
"Still, what they did was wrong, stupid... I don't even know why they couldn't have talked to their sisters about it!"
"They let jealousy get the better of them, Twilight. So why'd you get so upset when you found out?"
"Because I know what it's like to get shunned for hardly any reason!" Twilight was screaming at this point and standing up. "I was the smartest person at Crystal Prep without barely even trying, and look at how well that turned out! I was forcibly turned into a demon and would have destroyed the universe if you didn't purge me of all that stolen magic! And your friends stood by you throughout the Games, even when you screwed up! I mean, I heard about what you were like before the pony-me visited here for the first time, but after you defeated the sirens... I thought- I just..."
Twilight heavily sat back down on the bed, her head in her hands. "I thought friends were supposed to be there for each other. I thought they were supposed to give them the benefit of the doubt. I thought they were--"
"They're also supposed to forgive each other for bad mistakes." Sunset said.
Twilight lifted her head. "They are?"
Sunset folded Twilight's hands into hers. "Look, Twilight, I wish it didn't ever happen, and I'm still plenty upset about it. And given some of the bad choices I made in my past, I don't really blame anyone for being suspicious..." Sunset drooped a bit before regaining her senses. "But the important thing is that we all learned and grew from it. They learned not to jump to conclusions, and I learned to be a bit more assertive."
Twilight seemed to calm down at these words. "So did they earn your trust back?"
Sunset felt herself smile. "Yeah, they did. It took a week and a half, a lot of apologies, and Pinkie's school-wide We're-Sorry party, but I did forgive them."
"What about the CMC?" Twilight asked in a low whisper.
Sunset hesitated, dropping her smile. "Uh...well, I managed to forgive them after a while, but it took me about a month for me to even be able to talk to them.”
“Makes sense. They made you suffer a living hell.”
“Well, you know what they say about karma; it always comes back to bite you hard in the butt.”
“And, uh, did it for those girls?”
Sunset nodded. “Yeah, after they told us everything, we took them to Principal Celestia’s office so they could confess.” She shuddered. “Let me tell you, I did not know she could get THAT angry.”
Twilight gulped, deciding it was wise not to press on that image further. “So, uh…”
“The CMC took down the profile, but they still got punished BIG TIME, Twi. They got six months of detention, they were forced to confess and apologize to everybody in the school the next day, they weren’t allowed on any of the school computers without adult supervision for the rest of the year, and they were banned from bringing their phones and other electronics to school for about two months. Not that the last one really mattered, because they were all taken away by the police for all that time.”
”The police?”
Sunset nodded. “They needed evidence of the hacks to build the case. Because the CMC broke into computers to get the embarrassing info, not to mention all the cyberbullying, they were given warnings and records.”
“Not the best Christmas gift to get,” Twilight said.
“Yep. Also, they got suspended for two weeks and faced heavy punishment from their parents/grandma, too. Granny Smith actually spanked Apple Bloom. And the only reason I know that is because Applejack told me."
"Getting spanked is no fun," Twilight said, sympathy crossing her face.
Sunset agreed. "Yeah, I don't really agree with coporal punishment. And the other girls' punishments from their parents were bad, too. Scootaloo wasn't allowed outside the house for a month except for school, and Sweetie Belle was banned from the family computer unless it was for homework until the police gave her laptop back. Even then, somebody had to supervise her on it and they locked it up when she wasn't using it."
"You know, Shining Armor told me about how they put bugs in suspicious technology when they give them back to suspects so they could track their every move online in case something comes up again."
"Yeah, that's what the police did. They're not taking them off until they're 18. Also, all three students weren't allowed to spend time with each other out of school until they earned everyone's trust back."
"But what about the other students?! They hurt you badly!"
Sunset put a hand on Twilight's shoulder "Don't worry, after word got out about who was really Anon-a-Miss, they pretty much drowned me in apologies."
Twilight gulped and whispered, "Did they forgive Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo?"
Sunset cringed. "Not right away. After their suspension ended, nobody really welcomed them back to school. Pretty much everyone hated the CMC's guts. I mean, what they did was already horrible enough, but the fact that they framed an innocent person for the cyberbullying was what really stoked the flames. They treated those girls even worse than I was when they suspected me. They were even attacked in the bathroom near the main hallways. If Pinkie Pie's Pinkie Sense didn't go off a minute later, we might've had to get them to a hospital. Fortunately, those students faced a week of in-school suspension."
"But did the student body calm down, eventually?"
"The day after the attack, I had Vice Principal Luna and Princess Celestia arrange an assembly with everybody in the school. I told everyone that I had no hard feelings towards them for how they treated me and I asked them to find it in their hearts to forgive the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Despite everything they did, I feel bad for how they were suffering from letting their jealousy getting the best of them. Since I was the biggest victim of Anon-a-Miss, and because everyone still felt bad about suspecting me, they did listen. That's when the other girls and everyone else begin to forgive them. Took until April, but everyone forgave them.”
Another tear formed in Twilight’s eye. “I guess that’s why Applejack and Rarity got so angry with me. The fact that their little sisters committed that huge crime and having to live with how they nearly destroyed you...
Sunset pulled Twilight into a hug. "Yeah. Principal Celestia told me after the incident that I had the right to press charges, or even sue, the CMC. But I didn't want to do that. They were already being punished enough, and I knew what it was like to work to be forgiven by everyone, and I didn't want to make it any harder than it was going to be. You were forgiven by somebody before, right?"
Twilight wiped her tears away while she nodded. "Yeah, there was the time I was upset when my brother first started dating Cadence when I was 12. I thought she was going to drive a wedge in our relationship. I just hid my feelings until I finally blew up at dinner; Shining was shocked that I thought that, but by then I had already ran away. He found me in the park. He was pretty mad, but he heard my feelings out and then he wasn't angry anymore. He reassured me that I would always be his LSBBF and had me get to know Cadence more."
Sunset ruffled Twilight's hair. "And your love for your brother seems to still be strong as ever!"
Twilight nodded, a smile showing on her face. It diminished when another question came to mind.
"So you think the others will forgive me for yelling at them and calling their sisters bimbos?"
"Hey, if forgiveness was possible after the Anon-a-Miss incident and when you transformed into that demon, I don't see why they wouldn't forgive you now."
"I was kinda out of control when I chewed them out."
"Kinda?!"
"Okay, okay," Twilight said, pulling out her phone. "I'll call them up so I can apologize."
“Actually, they’re all waiting outside if you want to do it in person.”
“They are?”
“Yeah, they wanted to reconcile with you, but I wanted to let you calm down and understand what exactly happened before you guys did.”
"Uh, so is Rarity-"
"Yeah, she's fine. They took her to the nurse's office and just told her that she banged her nose against the grand piano when she was standing up too quickly after dropping something. It didn't get broken or anything, and Nurse Redheart didn't suspect any different."
Twilight jumped off the bed. “So what are we waiting for? Lets go!" She grabbed Sunset's arm and raced out the door.
"So you're sure your nose is fine, Rarity?"
"Yes, darling. There was only a little blood." She still sounded a little nasally, but she did seem fine, considering everything.
Twilight felt herself well up again. The fashionista took Twilight's hand into hers. "I forgive you, Twilight. You did have every right to be upset when you found out."
"I still shouldn't have hit you or called any of you idiots!" Twilight said, hugging Rarity. Applejack squeezed her shoulder.
"Just like we should have listened to Sunset during Anon-a-Miss. But what done is done, right?"
"I guess," Twilight said. "Principal Celestia said that reconciling after fights and misunderstandings makes friendship grow stronger, right?"
"That's right, sugarcube." Applejack winked.
"So we're still on for the sleepover at Pinkie's tonight?" Rainbow asked.
"I don't see why not," Fluttershy said.
"WOOHOO!!!!!!!!!!!!" Pinkie yelled as she pulled everybody into a group hug.
They stayed in it for about three minutes. As soon as they broke apart, Rainbow turned to Applejack, hands behind her back and a mischievous look on her face. "So, AJ. I have a Christmas present for you."
The green eyes lit up. "Really?"
A snowball hit her in the face.
.
Next thing everybody knew, the farmer was chasing the Soccer Captain all around the snowy field next to the apartments, the former swearing loudly while the latter laughed her head off. Then Pinkie Pie pegged Rarity, Sunset, and Twilight (who were still hugging) with her own snowballs. Soon, everybody, even Fluttershy, got into the snowball fight.
While Sunset dodged a projectile from Applejack, she joined in the laughter. This holiday season was going to be much, much better than the last.
THE END